Nasser Hussain last night spoke up for young wicketkeeper James Foster as England consider whether he is sufficiently refreshed to take the gloves for the first Test against New Zealand.

The Durham University student returned from three weeks on the sidelines to produce a much-improved display behind the stumps in the drawn three-day match against Canterbury, strengthening his case to retain his place in the side at Christchurch on Wednesday for the first of three back-to-back Tests.

Given an enforced rest after the first one-day international at Christchurch while Marcus Trescothick took responsibility for the wicketkeeping duties, Foster's place was expected to be under threat from Warren Hegg.

But, despite an impressive performance by Hegg last week during the drawn match against Otago in Queenstown, there is no doubting Hussain favours the youth and promise of his Essex team-mate Foster for the Test line-up.

"James' learning curve is going to be a long-term thing," said Hussain.

"He's not suddenly going to go out and blast hundreds after he's only played a few games - he's growing all the time in the game.

"He'll have bad games and bad days. He's just going to have to keep his work rate going and get better and better."

Foster was suddenly dropped from the one-day side after a string of errors during the series in India, with England's management voicing their concern about the strain being put on a 21-year-old tasting his first full winter of senior international cricket.

Although resistant to the rest at the time, Foster has seen the wisdom in his break from the tour and - having consulted with Trescothick, who experienced similar fatigue problems on the tour to Pakistan last winter - has emerged refreshed and eager to start the series against New Zealand.

Foster said: "I was expecting to play in the second one-day international.

"But, when we were doing the warm-ups before the start of the match, Nasser came up to me and told me to take a break because I was looking tired. He said he'd talk to me about it more later.

"Both Nasser and Duncan said I looked jaded, and other people mentioned that I looked tired. It was more the mental side of things that made me tired rather than the physical effects.

"After having the break, which included three or four days when I didn't play any cricket at all, I came back to practice feeling really alert. I was really hungry for cricket again."

It took Trescothick's advice, though, before Foster began to accept he needed a break.

"I spoke to Tres about it, and he told me he felt very similar in Pakistan last winter," explained Foster. "He said he didn't know where he was mentally right for the second and third Tests because he was so drained after playing international cricket from the previous summer non-stop." Foster's chances of demonstrating his new appetite could be limited by the controversial drop-in pitch being used for Wednesday's Test.

Having hosted the Canterbury Crusaders' Super-12 rugby union victory over the Auckland Blues, Lancaster Park officials have decided to use a pitch flown in specially. Last year, a similar style wicket was used for the Test between New Zealand and Pakistan which resulted in 1,243 runs being scored for only 19 wickets, with Matthew Sinclair and Yousuf Youhana both making double-centuries.

"We initially asked the groundsman to prepare two strips - a natural and a portable," added John Reid, operations manager of New Zealand Cricket.

"We wanted to be in a position close to the Test match to have a choice based on core-sample testing. The readings suggest it's likely to produce excellent pace and bounce."